Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei’s Thursday meeting with a group of academics shows how deeply he pays attention to the country’s scientific infrastructure and the development of hard sciences and humanities at universities.

During the gathering, each of the academics briefed Ayatollah Khamenei on the latest developments and the current situation at universities across the country and he gave some guidelines.

But none of the university professors talked about the relationship between the Iran-Iraq war and universities during the three-hour session.

Undoubtedly, the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war was the most sensitive part of Iran’s recent political life, but the third generation of the Islamic Revolution is still unfamiliar with various dimensions of the imposed war.

The eight-year war, during which many operations were carried out to liberate territories from the occupation of Baathist Iraq, is one of the most glorious periods in Iranian history.

Following the ouster of Saddam in 2003, former Iraqi officials revealed many hidden aspects of the war in their published memoirs, disclosing that regional and international powers working with the Saddam Hussein regime had hatched plots to annihilate the national and Islamic identity of the Iranian nation.

Despite intense economic and military sanctions on the county, the Islamic Republic managed to defeat the Iraqi army and achieved glorious victories, but the memories of the achievements could sink into oblivion with the passing of time.

Some recent incidents in the country have created doubts in the minds of the third generation about the war, the acceptance of UN Resolution 598, and why the conflict took so long.

These doubts have cast a shadow on the universities more than anywhere else, questioning the achievements of the eight years of the Sacred Defense.

Thus, it is essential for universities to prepare a proper academic atmosphere to acquaint the third generation of students with the epics that the Iranian nation created during the 1980-1988 war.

In order to keep the memory of the war alive forever, universities should offer a course entitled “Sacred Defense” and employ the veteran commanders who fought in the war to teach it.

In Arab countries like Egypt and Syria, courses on the Arab-Israeli wars are requirements at some universities for all academic fields.

Therefore, a committee of current and retired armed forces commanders should be established to compile the necessary books in order to institutionalize the culture of the imposed war and remove any doubts about it.